The surviving Dionne quintuplets, Annette and Cecile turn 80 years old today. They have given Multiple Births Canada permission to celebrate Canada’s National Multiple Birth Awareness Day, today, their birthday. With women waiting longer to have children, having more children than in the recent past and using infertility assistance, there is an increase in multiple-births. Not only do we need to understand the unique issues challenges in raising two or more infants at the same, but we also need to ensure that what the Canadian , Provincial and local city governments made this family suffer, Never happens again!

It will happen that one will be invited somewhere and the other is not. It is a fact that life is not always fair. Some parents feel it is OK to call the other parent and insist the second twin also be invited. Let’s rethink this!

Does this means if your twins have a job in the same workplace and only one gets promoted that you would call the boss and say, Hey, They are twins? It is wrong, wrong, wrong to call the other parents and put them on the spot. Your children get the wrong message – my parents will fix this. They are indeed, Not a Package and need to be treated individually. Life is not fair and they need to know from the very beginning that both or all of them will not have the same experiences. Where better else to learn this but in their home with loving parents? There is no way it is another family’s fault that one is left out. Stop thinking of them as a package and take the word “twin” out of the situation and let them move forward as individuals. Would there be the same reaction if the children were simply siblings and only one gets invited? I think not. We do our children a disservice to insist on invite equality and putting others on the spot. If only one needed shoes, would you buy each shoes so the other wouldn’t have hurt feelings? I hope not.